Archive for the ‘Darwin’ Category

Not long has passed since the last release, I know, however there were a number of little tweaks that needed to be disseminated to the public before too many people downloaded the old one.

The good old chaps down at WordPress Themes rejected my update at first, saying that there was a problem with the theme, that the sidebar disappeared on single page view. I replied, assuring them that this was a feature, not a bug (same functionality as the default WordPress theme, interestingly enough)

It has been a while between drinks, but here is the next revision of the Darwin Theme for WordPress. The evolution continues. The WordPress website has opened up its new themes section, so the new version should be available there once it is approved.

To install, simply unzip the file and upload the folder to your WordPress themes directory. For a preview of the theme, just browse around this site (note: you may notice some differences being worked on for the next version).

Favourable mutation log:

Made the title lighter and closer to the top.

Took away the grey footer that was breaking the page sometimes. Replaced it with a groovy dotted line and changed the text colours around a bit.

Changed header 3 size in archive and category page to match the normal posts because it looked strange.

Changed the browser title bar display to show the page name first and then the blog name on single posts and archive pages.

Changed attribution in the footer to link to the Darwin theme category.

Made the <body> background colour white as it showed up during loading sometimes.

Moved the <?php wp_footer(); ?> inside the footer div so that the little smiley face they use with wp-stats wouldn’t break the page layout.

Cleaned up css a little from the mess that was the Kubrick css.

Enjoy! Subversion repository should be coming soon so that you can add your own code to the theme and stay up to date with nightly builds.

After a few days use and rigorous testing down in the lab and out in the wild blue yonder of the interwebs, this new species of WordPress theme we call “Darwin” has undergone the first tiny changes in its evolutionary and ever-marching journey towards a more perfect suitability to its environment.

A number of small alterations in genetic php code seem enough to warrant a revision release. These include:

Colours and wording in the footer

Footer css styling issues in ie7

Altered styles for code and blockquotes

Wide borders for images in posts, making 500 pixel images line up perfectly with text

Comment box now lines up correctly

Header moves in to meet text while viewing single page, and h2 text now aligns left

“Archive” text removed from single pages in the browser title bar

Reduced height on list elements

Other seemingly imperceivable changes

This post also serves as an excuse to use the Abduction! Firefox plugin, which allows full page exports straight from your browser.

Install as per usual, as per the last Darwin post. And as before, feel free to use and modify at will, with or without credit under the GPL. Shout back any favourable modifications you may stumble upon.

I was searching for a very minimalistic theme, with a certain understated simple elegance, a theme that met with web standards, had widget support, and was easily customisable. Growing tiresome of wading through the sea of WordPress themes, looking for one that I could be truly happy with using, I decided it was high time I developed a theme of my own.

So here it is, entitled “Darwin” after the grandfather of evolution theory, good old Charlie. Still in very early alpha stages, the Darwin theme is based very heavily on the default Kubrick theme that comes with WordPress. I originally tried to develop the theme from scratch, without much luck, and also began to develop it as a K2 style, but found that I was stifled by the limited flexibility.

Go to the themes viewer in your WordPress admin and click on the one that says “Darwin”

Enjoy!

I’m releasing Darwin into the wild using the General Public Licence to encourage others to use and work on evolving the theme over time. The GPL basically states that you can use the code, change and modify it — you don’t even have to link back to me if you don’t want to, although it would be appreciated — as long as you keep all derived versions or modifications under the same licence.

Through various tiny mutations, Darwin will adapt over time. Please let me know any genetic code changes you might make, so I can include them in the next release. I’m phocks at gmail.